CWR: Reading Silence for the first time by Amy Welborn
Shusaku Endo’s masterpiece, the film adaptation of which will soon be in theaters, can be by turns profoundly moving, disturbing, and challenging. Here are some points to bear in mind while reading the novel.

Watching the first Star Wars movie a long time ago, how did I imagine Princess Leia getting the plans for the Death Star? Through some sort of spy mission, not something too flashy but require actual spycraft. Is that what we are getting with Rogue One? Or something more along the lines of the new Mission: Impossible, with commando-spies-operatives? Are the franchise owners so eager to make an action movie that they've made the back story for A New Hope too unbelievable, almost incoherent? If Princess Leia was already a known associate of the Rebellion, why would they give the plans to her, instead of transmitting it to the Rebel fleet or bases? Or making multiple copies and sending multiple couriers?

Monday, December 12, 2016

Will S. Korea avoid having another female president for a while? Or will another woman with a family background in politics and the resulting political connections become yet another legacy president candidate?

While it's been a while since I've seen Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in its entirety, I don't dislike it, unlike many Mad Max fans. I didn't mind that the violence was toned down, or that Max was softened up a bit. And the writers did hint at a credible backstory for Tina Turner's Auntie Entity, even if it still doubtful to red pillers that she would have the charisma, leadership qualities, and strength to create and rule over Bartertown.

For now, Rod Dreher is comfortable with being associated with neo-reactionaries but he continues to reject the alt right, while perhaps mischaracterizing it. Ethnonationalism is not the same as racism, although the two distinct attitudes can co-exist in the same person. And it is not anti-semitic to recognize that Jews, secular or orthodox, do not regard themselves as being part of the same people. The Neoreactionary Ben Op

Dreher would probably be ok with blogs like The Orthosphere. But perhaps he should try his hand at forming a political community instead of posing as a theorist. And no the typical parish community, even a small, tight-knit Orthodox one, does not approximate a political community (even if William Cavanaugh would wish so), nor is it nor is it intended to. Perhaps a monastic community is closer in some ways, but even it is markedly different from a political community in various important aspects (marriage and the begetting and raising of children, for one). He could learn a thing or two from people like Mountain Guerilla or Dmitry Orlov.